Bridges for a handful of counties. Farther north. And lets bring in abc7 news meteorologist sandhya patel. She is tracking everything we need to know tonight. Sandhya. Yeah, and larry and alma right now the air quality has deteriorated for parts of the bay area as the smoke has settled. Take a look at the air quality right now in santa rosa. It is unhealthy. Its red. Many parts of the bay area in the orange, which is poor for sensitive groups, there are a few spots that are good to moderate. The smoke forecast will show you smoky conditions fans, not just at midnight tonight, but tomorrow morning as well as the day goes on, the smoke will get a little less concerned. Traited across the area tomorrow. A live view from our mount tam cam. We do have that. Spare the air alert up through tomorrow. Poor air quality is expected for the bay area. That smoke is coming from wildfires burning up around oregon and northern california. And this is just taking you back in time. Now just at 11 p. M, just moments ago, that red flag warning going into effect for the north bay mountains, lake and solano counties. Its in effect until 5 p. M. Tomorrow. Gusty winds and low humidity elevate our fire danger. The winds in the hills right now, theyre not that strong, 28 miles an hour. Oakland hills, mt. Diablo 20. They will ramp up a bit as we head towards the Early Morning hours, up to 32 miles an hour in the hills. Still gusty at 31 miles an hour. Tomorrow morning at 9 a. M. And thats whats raising that fire danger. And ill be back to let you know how things will look for the weekend and whether that air quality will improve in just a few minutes. Larry. All right, sandra, see you in a few minutes. Lets move to the south bay now. Pretty much the same situation as most places around the bay. Look at all that haze across downtown san jose. The lingering effects canceled some sports practices but didnt stop everybody from spending some time outside. Abc7 News Reporter suzanne fawn with a closer look. Hundreds of people like Robert Hoffman are enjoying oktoberfest in downtown redwood city tonight. This is the spartan oktoberfest beer. Its pretty good. You know, any seasonal is a good excuse. Beer, bratwurst and a lot of festivities. Hes got all sorts of traditional german beer, food and everything and everything you could possibly ever want. Ice spy drive, go. This five day event runs through sunday, even in spite of how smoky it is outside. We have a couple of people in masks, but everyone seems pretty comfortable. A few miles away, a red morton park also in redwood city soccer practice was canceled for austin woodworths seven year old daughter that was a surprise. Woodworth says the smoke seemed worse yesterday. Kind of like a campfire smoke, just that that just that stinky. Just kind of somethings burning for igor burstein, who continues to work on his tennis strokes. The smoke didnt seem so bad. Its not very pleasant, but its certainly tolerable. Pickleball player ben philippe decided to take the extra step and mask up today during his match. The smoke yesterday really got to him. It was super hazy. It was it was like yellow. Um, but but today it was. It was it wasnt quite as bad. Maybe because i had the mask on yesterday. It was, it was pretty bad. Its way better today. Everybody was saying that it smelled like barbecue. Al contreras says his son and more than 100 other kids with rc 40 niners are going through regular practice this wednesday night despite the smoky skies, kids got to toughen up. You know, they got to football. You got to play if it rains or shines, id rather have them here than playing playstation at home. This morning, the smoke created a golden hue in palo alto. The horizon, as expected, was filled with smoke. And in san jose, you could see the haze across the skies. But there were no significa delays for flights today in daly city. Heres a look at the smoky sky. Vice mayor Jocelyn Manalo says daly city recreation activities will be held indoors for the rest of the week for the safety of seniors and youth. A spare the air alert is expected to stay in effect until tomorrow. And unhealthy conditions for sensitive groups may continue until friday. In redwood city, suzannephan abc7 news. All right. From the south bay now over to the east bay where the effects of the smoke felt all over oakland childrens fairyland had to close early because of the poor air quality and the oakland zoo. They never even got that far. They decided in the morning they would close for the entire day. A preschool near lake merritt ended up having to send the kids home after the air got worse throughout the day today, we had probably about 40 students come by and they were only able to play for about two hours before we had to make that phone call to send them home early. Oakland Public Schools took precautions, including keeping kids with sensitive conditions like asthma indoors for the day. The district says canceling classes that is a last resort. Breathing in bad air like this can cause negative Health Impacts even on a short term basis. Doing it over a long period of time can be extremely dangerous. As abc7 news special correspondent dr. Alok patel explained on our afternoon program. Getting answers. One thing that really concerned about is pm 2. 5 things in the air that are 2. 5 micrometers or smaller to give you a sense of how small that is, thats almost 30 times smaller than a strand of hair. So you can imagine if you were to inhale that, how deep in your lungs it could go even to your bloodstream. So that can cause a lot of not only short term, but also Long Term Health effects. If youre chronically exposed to it. Dr. Patel says everyone should heed the notices about not exercising outdoors when the air gets really bad. And he says if you have to be outside, wear an n95 mask, adding that cloth ones or bandanas will not protect yo and you can check the air quality anytime using our interactive tracker online. It also shows you where these fires are burning. Find it all on abc7 news. Com. Weve put it on the home page to make it easier for you to find. And as you know here at abc7 were constantly searching for ways to build a better bay area. Tonight we focus on twin peaks. Some safety changes coming to that popular lookout spot above San Francisco and abc7 News Reporter tim johns joining us live now in the newsroom with whats coming. And obviously these are all designed to deter crime. Yeah, larry, thats absolutely right. Mayor london breeds office telling me that several changes are indeed on their way to the twin peaks neighborhood. First, a license plate reader is in the works. And second, they plan on installing a camera on a gate on the portola side, entrance grove in safety concerns in San Franciscos twin peaks neighborhood after a shooting left one man dead. The victim was in a vehicle when a suspect pulled alongside the victim. The victim exited his vehicle and walked over toward the suspect, at which time he was shot. Once in the upper body, the shooting at the tourist hotspot took place in the early hours of sunday morning. The incident just the latest in a string of crimes that have hit the area in recent times, says mayor london breed, who called the shooting targeted during an instudio interview tuesday. Twin peaks has been a bit of a hotspot for some time now, and you know, car break ins and other violence incidents that have taken place. But its the most beautiful, iconic destination in San Francisco. And so we have to look at some solutions. Breeds office says some of those solutions be a camera on the gate at the entrance to twin peaks on portola drive, as well as a new license plate reader. Ideas that sound good to local resident eric farb. I do support it because, you know, ive lived here for a while and i had my house broken into farb isnt alone either. Several residents in the area told us they too worry about their safety. Maybe cameras would be good. I dont know anything to help, you know, solve the problem, or at least catch the people that are doing it. Dave yamamoto and his wife jan say theyve also been victimized multiple times. Dave says its gotten especially bad over the past five years. I still think its the people that come from the outside. They feel theres no security, theres no cops. You know, they can break into cars, they steal catalytic converters. And while the city grapples with trying to address problems in twin peaks, farb says he hopes local leaders dont forget about crime in other parts of the city, too, because its been more and more brazen in recent times, where people are getting held up at gunpoint. So its getting weird. Its getting really weird. Now. While mayor breeds office says local authorities are working to get that license plate reader and camera installed in the twin peaks area, as of now, there is no set date of when they might arrive in the newsroom. Tim johns, abc7 news. Tim, thank you. In the east bay Oakland City Council passed a sweeping Public Safety plan that looks to shore up the Police Department with more officers. Theyre asking for the fbis help with investigations. Also installing high tech cameras. Now, this comes after the city missed the deadline to get funding to fight retail crime. It takes a comprehensive approach to address crime, to reduce crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everybody by creating a Grant Program that allows Business Associations to purchase these cameras and put them on private property that opd would have access to. The plan also funds reentry for people leaving incarceration, which Council Member cobb views as critical to reducing crime. He says the city has until december to come up with a status report on each item in the plan. Now you can get the full picture of Public Safety in your area with our abc7 news neighborhood safety tracker shows you a wide range of statistics for San Francisco, oakland and san jose. You will find it right on the front page at abc7 news. Com. Those free athome covid tests from the government are back on the Mailing Program is being restarted. Given the rise in covid cases nationwide. Secretary of health and Human Services and former California Attorney general Xavier Becerra sat down to get his updated booster and flu shot at a cvs today. Those appointments are now available right now at local walgreens and cvs. Becerra says its especially important now as covid hospitalizations have ticked up nearly 8. Thats according to the latest cdc data. Those free covid tests will be available for at a Time Starting this monday, september 25th. You can order them at covid test. Gov. San francisco is looking to build a better downtown as it recovers from the pandemic. Some of that effort begins tomorrow. Its trying to turn the landing at leidesdorf into a downtown destination by reimagining the space. Youve got murals, a lot of outdoor seating, a long list of events planned, ranging from performances to morning gym classes with several restaurants , bars and shops nearby. The city is hoping to make it a go to spot in the future. All right. I want to give you a live look now at the bay bridge tonight, because we have an update on that. Lights project that would illuminate the entire western span. You may remember the lights got turned off in march because the people behind the art project didnt have the money to fix it. Well, theyre now just 2 million short of their goal of 10 million. If they hit ten. And the plan is to light up both sides of the span. This is an example of where your philanthropy, your generous investment can really go a long way. Not only will you unleash the full 10 million once we cross that, that 10 million threshold, youll create a work of public art that will be radically accessible to millions of people. Now, turning the lights on, it wouldnt be instant because it will take several months to repair the old installation as well as setting up the new one. A fight over flags. A Bay Area SchoolBoard Meeting turns tense once again in less help for the holidays. The early signs that youre shopping this year may be a big struggle. And human like new tech hanging out in your home amazon alexas i upgrade thats sure to get people talking we handcraft every batch of our delicious popcorn. Like our cretors cheese and caramel mix. Great on their own, even better together. Try cretors, handcrafted smallbatch popcorn. He ended up not taking any action. This drew another huge crowd after last weeks decision that essentially banned the flying of the pride flag. There were rumors the sunol glen District Board might fire the superintendent as well as their Legal Counsel that did not happen. The superintendent was against the ban. Todays meeting drew the Alameda County superintendent, who said she would consider withdrawing support for the district. It is our moral imperative to make our schools safe for our kids to thrive and learn and it is really, really troubling when we let politics take that over. Its not clear right now whats next, but there is already at least one challenge to the flag ban, and there are groups considering other actions, including pulling their students out of the district. The federal government going to start reviewing the discharge records of lgbtq plus veterans to see if maybe more vets might be eligible for benefits. The department of defense announcement comes on the 12th anniversary of the repeal of dont ask, dont tell. For the first time, officials will proactively look at the records of veterans who were less than honorably discharged because of sexual orientation. Now, if theyre eligible to be upgraded to an honorable discharge, that would entitle them to full veterans benefits. Vets are also able to apply for this review. Its never too early for christmas, but there may be less help this holiday season. Us retailers plan to add 410,000 seasonal jobs this year, making it the lowest amount of Seasonal Hiring since 2008. Stores like target want to keep its onboarding to 100,000 workers. Macys estimates it will hire 38,000 people, which is 3000 fewer workers in last year. However, amazon will increase its Holiday Hiring by adding 250,000 employees. Its also hiking pay to 20. 50 an hour. We want to make sure that we do have the staff to be able to meet customer demand, especially around the holidays. Its definitely important for us to meet that hiring need. According to economists predictions, fewer shoppers will splurge this year, which could be due to the rise of inflation rates. As new developments on a story we first alerted you to a couple months ago, google is now stepping in with new Software Upgrades for its chromebooks. Thats a huge sigh of relief for School Districts across the country. The software for the low cost laptops was expiring soon. It would have rendered them useless and cost School Districts millions in new tech purchases. But now google will automatically update every chromebook each year for the next ten years. If its a model released in 2021 or later, or no model, older than that will expire for at least two years. Several famous authors have joined a lawsuit against San Francisco based openai, accusing the company of copyright infringement. John grisham, david baldacci, george r. R. Martin and jodi picoult are among those whove joined this class action lawsuit. They claim the books were used to help train the chatgpt chat bot, and it can now actually mimic their work. This is the latest among a number of lawsuits filed against openai, the company has not yet issued a response. New at 11, amazons alexa devices are the next thing to step into the future of ai. The Company Claims the Voice Assistant now feels exactly like youre talking to a human being. How did my soccer team do yesterday . Yesterday, ol reign won 1 to 0 against the portland thorns. You can judge for yourself, but amazon says the voice was given a more human sounding tone. Alexa and echo devices dating back to 2014 will now also be able to resume conversations without having to wake them back up. They can also respond quicker, learn your preferences, change tone based on the topic and even offer opinions. Theres no word on when the update will hit devices. So we got all this ai voice to text is still. Yeah, i know. Sorry i didnt say that. Totally the opposite. Check it before you say. Yeah, dont hit send. All right. Speaking of checking things, lets check the weather. Yeah. Meteorologist sandhya patel is here. We all want to know about that air quality. Sandhya yeah, its going to get better as we head towards the weekend. Alma and larry, let me show you a live picture right now. I do have good news for the air quality, not immediately from our sfo camera. You can see its a little smoky and murky. Spare the air remains up through tomorrow, friday, we go to moderate air quality. So from poor tomorrow to moderate saturday, we start to see some good air quality. And by sunday, everyone seeing that fresh air with the stronger onshore breeze, better air quality for all of us to breathe easier. Visibility is being impacted by the smoke right now. Four miles in santa rosa, six miles in san jose. Heres the reason why were getting all that smoke. Theres this low pressure system that has been dropping southward, northerly winds dragging the smoke in from up to our north. That trough will continue to deepen, bringing showers to the sierra. But that same wind direction is whats raising our fire danger, particularly in the north bay. So this is where itll go to a moderate to high early tomorrow morning. So just be aware of it due to the gusty winds and low humidity, 50 and 60 on your temperatures right now, a live view from our pier 39 camera. And the clouds are broken overhead, hazy